Majalah Al-Hikmah Edisi 15 2025

Development of Secular Consciousness Secular consciousness develops from conditions that gradually allow a worldly- dominated consciousness to dominate within individual’s worldview. These conditions are primarily psychosocial, and they influence how a Muslim interprets life and reality. Over time, these conditions serve as the basis for cognitive secularization, a process that can lead to the deliberate exclusion of God from human awareness and ultimately resulting in godless consciousness. These conditions can be summarily categorized into two types: internal and external. 1. Internal condition of secular consciousness The primary condition that gives rise to secular consciousness is internal, as it is cognitive. This begins when the mind or cognition perceives a dualistic worldview that divides reality into two opposing and inharmonious categories. The dualization makes it possible to think of two things as two separate independent identities, or to perceive two things as objectively detached from each other. The common instance for this kind of dualistic worldview is the material- spiritual division. Such dualistic way of perceiving reality facilitates the possibility of secular consciousness, one which enables the isolation of worldly awareness from divine consciousness. 2. External condition of secular consciousness Externally, secular consciousness is shaped by the dynamic between the individual believer and societal surrounding. Societal influences and authority structures define the dominant awareness of individuals. The propagation of secular education, materialistic public concerns, purely worldly entertainment, for instance, embeds worldly-centred mindset as common sense within Muslim societies. The connotation of secular almost always invokes a dichotomy between worldly and religion. Any form of principle that advocates for such division can be generally said as secularism. Secularism is an ideology which central concern is the separation of religion from the public life. While both are closely correlated, secularism can be said as an optimal manifestation of secular consciousness. At the most fundamental level, secularism grounds in an non-theistic and materialistic premises that dismiss divine justification. It is not an overstatement to say that any worldview deriving from secular is fundamentally incompatible with the Islamic way of life, since secular itself inherently implies an absence of religiosity in which 'godless consciousness' occurs. MAJALAH AL HIKMAH | 41